The present invention relates to a laser guide for a hand held power drill. More particularly, this invention relates to a means to mount a small laser on a hand held power drill such that the laser can be used to align the bit of the power drill with a desired object.
It is well known to use a laser as a pointer to guide the targeting of various devices, including guns and missiles. In most of these applications the laser aligns with the target point of the device. But in these devises the objective is completed as soon as the device or laser reaches its target. Not so in boring a hole. The objective is only started when the point of a drill bit begins to penetrate the surface of a material. It is generally easy to bore a hole through {fraction (1/4)}xe2x80x3 of material. However, the difficulty is increased as the material gets thicker. Additionally, the difficulty is compounded many times over if that hole must be directly in line with another hole or object. Example: you must bore a hole through a 12 inch thick wall to install a steel pipe for a gas line, and that steel pipe must line up with a fitting ten feet away. It is easy to start the hole but it is almost impossible to bore that hole through 12 inches of material and get that steel pipe to line up with the fitting, unless you use the fitting as a target. By fastening a laser to the back of the drill and shining that laser directly in line with the drill bit (but in the opposite direction) and shining that laser beam at the target (in this case the fitting) you can bore a hole through 12 inches of material or 12 feet of material and still be directly in line with that target or fitting.
Another application is the installation of hand railings or stairway hand railings. The holes bored in a hand rail post must be directly in line with the holes drilled in the next post in order to receive the rails that would go in between the two hand rail posts. And the holes bored in the horizontal rails must be directly in line with each other in order to receive the balusters that go in between the top and bottom rails.
Another application is the manufacturing of circle stairways. The holes bored in the center column must be exactly in line with the stair tread in order to receive the stair tread.
Another application would be shining the laser forward by mounting the laser above and parallel to the drill bit, even 10 or 12 inches above the drill bit. This would allow in line boring of material with a forward mounted target. Example: boring a hole all the way through a post on a deck to run a wire through it in order to put a light on top of that post.
When mounting a laser on a hand held power drill another problem is encountered. The vibrations of the power drill require that the laser must be held very securely in place to be useful. The present invention solves all the known problems, thus providing a laser guided hand held power drill.
The main aspect of the present invention is to produce the effect of in line boring using a laser guided hand held drill without the use of additional mechanical alignment devices.
Another aspect of the present invention is to allow the user to drill a series of holes in a series of work pieces so that the holes are directly in line with each other.
Another aspect of the present invention is to allow the user to bore a perfectly in line hole that is small (about {fraction (1/2)}xe2x80x3 in diameter) and than make it larger by boring out that hole with a pilot bit (about 1xe2x80x3-10xe2x80x3in diameter)
Another aspect of the invention is to allow the user to drill a series of holes in a work piece, wherein said holes are a given distance apart only having to measure the first hole.
Another aspect of the present invention is to provide a means to retrofit a laser guide on an existing hand held power drill.
Another aspect of the present invention are to provide bubble levels built into the laser and or hand held drill in the case that a hole would need to be bored either plumb or level without having a target for the laser to point at.
Other aspects of this invention will appear from the following description and appended claims, reference being made to the accompanying drawings forming a part of this specification wherein like reference characters designate corresponding parts in the several views.
The present invention solves the above problems by mounting the laser in the casing of the drill such that the laser is in line with the bit and pointing in the reverse direction. This allows the laser to be used to align the drill bit with a mark or hole such that the drill bit is directly in line with the preexisting mark. A retrofit mount allows the present invention to be used with pre-existing hand held power drills. The mount can be designed to allow the laser to point backward or forward.
The present invention""s retrofit mount locks on to the machined race of a hand held power drill using a metal collar and bolts. An arm extends either back over the body of the drill in the reverse pointing application or up from the collar in the forward pointing application. A small laser is mounted to the arm such that the laser is aligned with the drill bit.